FIJI’S earnings from tourism stood at $377.3 million for the March quarter of 2017, an increase of 10.7 per cent ($36.4m) over the March quarter of 2016.
But the March quarter 2017 earnings was 20 per cent lower than the amount recorded for the December quarter of 2016, noting a decrease of $94.2m.
This was highlighted in the country’s earnings from tourism for the March quarter of this year released recently by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics.
Fiji’s tourism earnings in the December quarter of last year was recorded at $471.5m, a positive performance considering the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Winston on the industry last year.
According to the bureau, notable changes in earnings recorded by country contributed to the earnings in tourism during the review period in March this year.
Fiji’s two major traditional tourism markets, Australia and New Zealand top this list, with Australia up by 11.4 per cent ($21.0m) to $204.9m contributing 54.3 per cent to the total earnings.
New Zealand also increased by 10.7 per cent ($3.9m) to $40.3m contributing 10.7 per cent to the total earnings in the March quarter.
The US also went up by 8.5 per cent ($2.6m) to $33.1m contributing 8.8 per cent while Continental Europe rose by 11.2 per cent ($2.2m) to $21.9m contributing 5.8 per cent to the total.
These countries accounted for 79.6 per cent of earnings in the March quarter of 2017 an increase of 0.2 percentage point when compared with the March quarter of 2016, which was recorded at $340.9m.
According to the bureau, Fiji’s earnings from tourism is basically a product of the estimated average daily spending of tourists (per diem).
This is gathered from the International Visitor Survey (IVS) conducted by the Ministry of Tourism and the number of visitor days calculated by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics.
